YouTube Testing Online Games for Mobile and Desktop Platforms
According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, Google is exploring the potential of online games as a new revenue stream for YouTube. The video hosting platform has allegedly asked its staff to test a new product called Playables, which allows users to play online games directly on YouTube. The games are said to be accessible on both mobile and desktop devices, as per an internal email seen by the Journal.
Users can play them on the YouTube website using a web browser or via an app on an Android or iOS phone. While the report hints that there are a number of games currently being tested, it only specifically mentioned Stack Bounce. It’s an ad-supported arcade game that challenges players to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball. As the publication points out, YouTube already makes money from streaming games, but this product gives it another way to generate revenue from the industry amid declining advertising spending.
While Google failed to grow its defunct Stadia game streaming service and eventually shut it down, this company is a completely different matter. YouTube already has a huge audience that visits the site regularly, so viewing a new product wouldn’t be a problem. Playables is perhaps more than Netflix’s game product, which gives its paying users access to casual games on a mobile device. Netflix also has big goals for its gaming initiative, and is said to be developing an extension that extends beyond mobile devices by testing TV games that use phones as controllers.
